The old days of a psychiatrist and a patient on the couch are gone. Now there’s PrettyPaddedRoom a new online start-up that offers video and virtual counseling sessions.
For someone who needs to vent, but is too busy to visit a real-life person, the website offers a variety of choices. You might chronicle your woes in an online journal, and then let a therapist read your entries and provide feedback. This costs $50 a month for three read-and-respond sessions. Or you can go a step further and pay for private online video calls with a mental-health professional. These cost $100 per month for four 30-minute video sessions and a journal read. These video calls can be scheduled pretty much whenever you want.
“There’s still a stigma attached to therapy, and I think people see it as intimidating or expensive,” said the website’s founder, Bea Arthur, who’s also a therapist. “But the fact remains that most people would love the chance to be listened to genuinely and objectively. So I wanted to transform traditional therapy into a more approachable and affordable experience.”
PrettyPaddedRoom has five therapists on staff, and has plans to add more if it sees the appropriate demand. Obviously, you wonder about the background and quality of the therapists, something you certainly consider when seeing a therapist in real life. And you also have to wonder, what business and profession won’t go virtual in the days to come?
Read more at VentureBeat.
